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You can search our Historic Book Collection here. This collection reflects the early teaching philosophy of the Royal Academy Schools and includes rare volumes of engravings reproducing the masterpieces of medieval and post-Renaissance European art and architecture, and original editions of virtually all the early treatises on art, anatomy, perspective, colour theory and connoisseurship.

Use the Name field to search for the names of people or organisations associated with the creation of a book, e.g. author, editor, engraver. You can limit the search to one particular role using the Other Role pick-list.

Enter words from the title in the Title field. Or a combination of terms, e.g. words from title, author, publisher, subject term, etc, in the All fields field.

You can limit the search to books published in a particular year, or date range via the Date field, e.g. 1765; 1700:1770; 18th Century

Use the Language pick-list to search for books in a particular language, (or for the language that a book has been translated from). To view records which include images from the books select the With images box.

Please note that we are still cataloguing the book collection. Please visit the Library Information Service page to find out how to contact the library with an information enquiryor to make an appointment to use the library.